A BMW-driving businessman who ‘drove like a man possessed’ has been jailed after he fatally ploughed into another motorist in a horrific 109mph country lane crash.
Roger Brenninkmeyer, 60, overtook a car on the wrong side of the carriageway, sending his vehicle flying at crossroads before it slammed into the rear of another man’s Ford Fusion.
The entrepreneur’s car had hurtled up a grass embankment and flown through the air, only coming to rest in a field after it had struck the car driven by pub barman Droy Darrock-York, 20.
Mr Darroch-York suffered fatal head injuries as a result of Brenninkmeyer’s ‘selfish’ and ‘aggressive’ actions.
A court also heard that Brenninkmeyer, a director of a string of media and marketing companies who lived in a £1m, seven-bedroom mansion, was searching for suicide prevention before the collision and held ‘delusional’ beliefs that he was in severe debt.
Nevertheless he was condemned by a judge for his ‘appalling’ driving.
The businessman had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing and was jailed for six years and eight months by Judge Timothy Potts who called Mr Darroch-York’s death ‘senseless and appalling’.
Caernarfon Crown Court heard the collision happened on an unclassified road leading from Pentreuchaf, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, on June 4, 2022.
Prosecutor David Mainstone said Brenninkmeyer had overtaken at speed on the country road, including on a blind bend.
At one stage, his BMW overtook a car which was doing 20mph and was thought to have scraped a hedge on the narrow road.
Eyewitnesses said the defendant appeared ‘agitated’ and was waving his arms around.
At a crossroads, another motorist turned into the Llannor-Pentrechaf road on the Lleyn Peninsula but saw the BMW driving towards him at high speed on the wrong side of the road as it overtook a vehicle.
Mr Mainstone said the BMW hit a grass embankment, sending up a shower of grass and soil. It became airborne, flying over the junction and striking the rear offside of Mr Darroch-York’s Ford Fusion.
The prosecutor said: ‘The defendant’s car continued airborne, hitting the top of the stone wall and landing in the field beyond, where it rolled corner-over-corner until finally it came to rest 99 metres from where it had struck the grass embankment.’
A witness who ran to Brenninkmeyer’s overturned car said the defendant told him: ‘I just want to die.’
Data from the BMW’s airbag control showed how the dangerous driving had taken place over a two-mile stretch. It had earlier been doing 99mph as it approached an advisory 20mph zone by a school before accelerating to 109mph when it hit the grass bank just before the junction.
‘He didn’t apply the brakes,’ Mr Mainstone said.
Nicola Roberts, who’d raised the victim from the age of four, said in a heart-rending statement: ‘Droy was the sunshine to my day’.
She called Brenninkmeyer’s actions ‘selfish’ and added: ‘The last two years have been hell.’
Mr Darroch-York, of Nefyn, had worked behind a bar and did a bricklaying course. He loved being outdoors and was a ‘caring, gentle soul’, his family said.
The prosecution said on the defendant’s mobile phone was a note written two days before the tragedy, which said: ‘I have taken my own life as an act of cowardice.’ It referred to ongoing debt and there was also a web search for suicide prevention.
Neil Saunders, defending, said Brenninkmeyer, of Neston, Wirral, but who was staying on the Lleyn Peninsula, near where the crash happened had sought help for mental health issues and ‘wasn’t someone in his right mind’ but never intended to hurt anyone.
Mr Saunders, who revealed his client had ‘delusional’ beliefs that he was in severe debt from a US business venture and a North Wales investment, said: ‘Mr Brenninkmeyer has been mortified that his driving has meant Droy Darroch-York lost his life.’
The ‘utterly devastated’ defendant was still unable to recall what was going on when the crash happened. If he were intending to take his own life, it was unlikely he would have worn a seatbelt, Mr Saunders added.
Judge Timothy Petts said Brenninkmeyer had driven ‘aggressively’ and at speed on a country lane with witnesses describing the ‘horrendous’ nature of his driving. One said he was ‘like a man possessed.’
The judge said he did not believe Brenninkmeyer – who was also given an 11-year and four months driving ban – was trying to kill himself.
But Judge Potts said: ‘Your mental illness did impair your ability to exercise appropriate judgement. Your illness didn’t force you to drive in this way.’